External radiation absorbed by a computing system may result in transient, inconsistent data errors that are unrelated to component or manufacturing failures. Although many systems are able to tolerate these errors to some degree, radiation-caused data errors may also lead to loss of function and system-critical failures in mission-critical applications.
More specifically, the charge (electron-hole pairs) generated by the interaction of an energetic charged particle with semiconductor atoms of a silicon device may corrupt the data stored therein. These charged particles can come directly from radioactive materials (e.g., radioactive isotopes in integrated circuit packaging materials, solder bump materials used in flip-chip packaging) and cosmic rays/solar particles (which interact with the upper atmosphere to generate high-energy protons and neutrons), or indirectly as a result of high-energy particle interaction with the semiconductor itself. Shrinking geometries and decreasing operating voltages increase the chances of radiation-caused data errors.
A product designer may attempt to minimize the rate of such errors through design choices including circuit design, semiconductor material, package material, substrate material, and device geometry. These choices will necessarily result in trade-offs with the competing goals of reducing device size, reducing operating voltage, increasing operating speed, and reducing power dissipation. However, these trade-offs will result in inefficiencies during most intended uses, as the resulting product will rarely, if ever, operate in the worst-case radiation scenario for which it was designed.